Client Stories
The people we work with include creative directors and marketing consultants, fast-moving tech entrepreneurs and the founders of independent restaurants – as well as providing financial directorship for larger businesses.
Scroll down to meet some of them here, learn what challenges they faced – and how we worked together so they can sleep at night.
Haydn Grey
About
Katherine Wildman is a copywriter and scriptwriter who helps businesses to remove the corporate waffle from their communications. A member of ProCopywriters’ Network – the Alliance of Professional Writers – Katherine’s based on the North East coast, but she works with clients all over the world.
The Challenges
When we first met her, Katherine’s business was beginning to grow, while at the same time her personal circumstances were undergoing significant changes. Her young family was growing up and she was finding that she had more working time available during the week.
When we looked at her business, it was clear that she was busy – but she was busy with lots of small jobs that took up her time but didn’t really result in a healthy bank balance. Despite being a limited company, she was also struggling to see the difference between the money that belonged to her business and the money that was hers to spend. She kept her receipts in some form of order, but had no idea how they correlated to her business growth – or lack of.
“When I first met Gill back in 2010, it’s fair to say I was scared of money – and of getting my accounts wrong. I honestly had no clue – and, even worse, I was bumbling along with my head in the sand. Not a great place to be as a business owner.”
Katherine Wildman, 2018
How We Worked
We worked with Katherine to help her aim for larger pieces of work, and to set her fees in accordance with market rates. We were able to show her where she was adding value for her clients, and to price her work appropriately.
To remove the stress of bookkeeping, we asked Katherine to simply put her receipts in a box and give them to us on a regular basis. (It may be helpful to note that it’s a Swizzels sweetie tin from Halloween three years ago and it lives in her office cupboard. There’s also a protractor and seven pence in coppers in there – we’ve yet to work out why.)
We then helped her with an element of financial planning so that her tax bill at the end of the year wasn’t a shock and she could build a savings plan for it.
We moved her accounting onto QuickBooks, so that she can see at-a-glance where she stands, month by month, and we now issue and follow up all invoices for her.
Until last year, Katherine was also working as an Associate Lecturer at Northumbria University. We helped her to manage her finances so that she understood which business was paying her where, and the tax implications of her university employment.
Today
Katherine is now working for clients across the UK and the world and building her business, freed from the time needed to keep her limited company in good working order. She delivers her Swizzels tin to us on a regular basis and no longer has to battle with late payments.
Katherine Wildman
Jing Well Acupuncture
About
Victoria Johnson DipAc MBAcC is fully registered traditional acupuncturist, based in North Shields on the banks of the River Tyne. Victoria is a Member of The British Acupuncture Council, the UK’s largest regulatory body for practitioners of Traditional Acupuncture.
The Challenges
When we first met Victoria, she was renting a room in another therapist’s practice. She was a sole trader and we saw that she was struggling to differentiate between the money that came into the business, and the money that was hers to spend.
As a consequence, she was spending much of the money she was making – and scrabbling to find the cash to pay her tax bill each January.
Victoria’s business had a very decent turnover – but because of what was being spent, it wasn’t growing as quickly as it could and Victoria wasn’t able to fulfill her ambition to open a practice of her own.
“The struggle to differentiate between the money in a business and the money that’s the business owner’s to spend is a common problem with sole traders, and it’s quite a simple one to solve.”
Gill Brereton
How We Worked
We converted Victoria’s business into a limited company to split her money legally from what belonged to the business and what belonged to her. More importantly, becoming the director of her own limited company helped Victoria to make the split between what was her money and what was her business’s money on a psychological level.
Today
Since making the move from sole trader to limited company, Victoria has seen her company go from strength to strength. As the money in her business began to build up, Victoria reached the point when the lease on the room she was renting was up for renewal.
Working together, we looked at her costings and did some projections about the business and its potential for growth. With this information, Victoria felt confident to take out a lease on her own clinic with a loan to cover its refurbishment – and today she’s the therapist renting rooms to other practitioners. The business continues to grow and it’s performing extremely well.
“By providing me with clear and easy-to-understand financial information, Gill and Nick supported me to make the decisions that have seen my business develop and grow. I’m in a stable position, my business is growing and I’ve got what I’ve always wanted – my own place.”